The Government as of today, is discarding LUC Class 3 soils for development

The Government of today wants to grow more houses in New Zealand.

Sadly they have announced that they would like to take all the LUC Class 3 soils, that are currently protected in the Natural Policy Statement on Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL), out of the NPS-HPL legislation, and present them as development options for more urban sprawl over our highly food producing soils. (LUC means "Land Use Capability").

The view we have taken is that this would be a criminal act.

LUC Class 3 soils account for 9% of New Zealand's land area; this is a massive area of land.

Because of this large area of Class 3 land, there is a huge variation in the quality of those soils within this LUC Class 3 soil type.

These soils range from very fertile that verges very close to LUC Class 2 soils and grows abundant fruits and vegetables for national and international use, to not so fertile which comes close to the LUC Class 4 soils which are not so fertile.  

We believe that to get around this anomaly, if there is an application for an urban or industrial development on LUC Class 3 soils, then an independant soil test should be carried out to determine the fertility of those soils. 

Observe these maps of the Heretaunga Plains, Pukekohe, Horowhenua and Tauranga.

These maps display all three soil types protected under the NPS-HPL; LUC Class 1, 2 and 3.

The other maps are these areas with LUC Class 3 taken out.

Click here to view the document showing the LUC Class 3 soils being discarded from 9% of NZ.